Scroll down to see last week’s recap.
Events:
- The Canadian GDP (Gross Domestic Product) for December 2022, scheduled to be published on the 28th of February, is expected to remain the same as in November 2022 – 0.1%. Gross Domestic Product is the total value of all goods and services produced in the country. It measures the growth or contraction of the economy in a given month, compared to the previous month.
- The Australian CPI (Consumer Price Index) for January, that will be published on the 1st of March, is expected to decrease by 0.3% compared to January 2022. The Australian CPI is a measure of the average price change of a basket of goods and services commonly consumed by households in Australia, including food, housing, transportation, and healthcare.
The CPI is calculated by comparing the CPI of the current month to the CPI of the same month in the previous year. It reflects the rate of inflation or deflation in the economy over a year.
- The ISM Manufacturing PMI for February, which will be published on the 1st of March, is expected to rise by 0.6 compared to the previous month. ISM Manufacturing PMI refers to the Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the manufacturing sector in the United States.
The PMI is a survey-based economic indicator that measures the performance of the manufacturing sector by assessing changes in production levels, new orders, employment, supplier deliveries, and inventory levels. The index is calculated based on a survey of purchasing managers in manufacturing companies who are asked to rate the general business conditions in their industry.
A reading above 50 indicates expansion in the manufacturing sector, while a reading below 50 indicates contraction. The ISM Manufacturing PMI is used to forecast trends in economic growth, inflation, and interest rates.
Notable Earnings:
Recap from Last Week (20.02.23 – 24.02.23):
- Google has been accused by the Justice Department of deleting written records that were important to an antitrust lawsuit accusing the company of preserving its dominance in internet search. The allegations relate to Google’s practice of setting employee chats to auto-delete, despite promising to preserve records required for litigation. Google employees reportedly used instant messaging, that deleted chats after 24 hours, to discuss “substantive and sensitive business.” Although federal rules for litigation required Google to suspend deleting chats in mid-2019, it is alleged that Google continued using “off the record chats” despite the lawsuit. The Justice Department has now urged a federal judge to sanction Google. The deleted chats could contain pertinent information and confidential discussions between Google executives, the government argued. Google has denied the allegations. On Friday, Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc (GOOG) shares dropped by -1.26% to $89.92.
- Kevin O’Leary, the host of Shark Tank, has claimed that crypto exchanges can only survive by enforcing regulations. On Friday, he twitted that unless there are regulations, crypto exchanges will continue to fail. O’Leary had previously appeared on a live stream interview discussing how regulations and massive fines are deterring potential investors from entering the crypto market. He also mentioned that the SEC’s recent order for Kraken to shut down its staking program and pay a $30 million fine sends a message to investors that regulators are “cracking down” on crypto companies. According to O’Leary, senators and congresspeople are fatigued from having to address crypto failures every six months and call for more regulations.
- Microsoft Corp. has expanded its deal with OpenAI by $10 billion to integrate the latter’s GPT-3 tech into Bing search engine and cloud services. Daniel Ives, an analyst from Wedbush, stated that despite macroeconomic concerns, CIOs have approved many large cloud platform deals for Redmond, which is a positive sign for the quarter and the year. Ives sees a “transformational” shift to cloud platforms as a significant IT priority for enterprises and believes that Microsoft’s “Azure” is well-positioned to gain share. He also believes that ChatGPT and AI will add a new layer of growth to the MSFT story in the coming years. Ives predicts that Azure/Office 365, combined with AI monetization, will add $20 per share to Microsoft’s valuation in the next 12-18 months. In addition, despite regulatory hiccups of purchasing the gaming company Activision Blizzard Inc., Ives expects the deal to close by late summer. Microsoft shares closed Thursday’s session at $254.77, up 1.30%.
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